The proposal of the Superior Council of the Magistracy will not be stopped until May 12, after a period allowing the not selected candidates to formulate any observations. The appointment must then be formalized by a presidential decree.
Le Monde with AFP
The Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) announced, Wednesday, May 4, that it was going to propose the appointment of Christophe Soulard at the head of the Court of Cassation. The latter currently chairs the criminal chamber of the jurisdiction, she said in a statement.
The CSM, competent for the appointments of the magistrates of the head office, preferred this technician to a candidate from the Court of Cassation, the advisor Domitille Duval-Arnould, dean of the first civil chamber, and to a magistrate with a more profile Politics, Xavier Ronsin, currently first president of the Rennes Court of Appeal.
As the procedure wants, the Council’s proposal will not be fixed definitively until May 12, after a period allowing the not selected candidates to formulate any observations.
twenty years of Experience at the Court of Cassation
Christophe Soulard, 64, is to succeed Chantal Arens, who retired on June 30 after three years as “first judge of France”. His appointment must be formalized by a presidential decree. The president is required to follow the opinion of the CSM, made up of magistrates and external personalities, to name judges.
The first magistrate of the judicial order also assumes, as is the rule, the presidency of the plenary training of the CSM and its competent training with regard to the magistrates of the siege, as well as the presidency of the council of ‘Administration of the National School of Magistracy (ENM).
This proposal for appointment intervenes in a context of a deep crisis marked by a distrust of the judicial institution, coupled with a cry of alarm of many magistrates on their suffering at work.
Recognized as a great lawyer, Christophe Soulard started his career in 1985 as a civil judge in Metz. He has nine years of experience in European institutions and twenty years at the Court of Cassation to his credit. He has chaired the criminal chamber since September 2017, which judges nearly 7,500 cases each year.